Standards-based education reform in the United States

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Education reform in the United States since the 1980s [1] has been largely driven by the setting of academic standards for what students should know and be able to do. These standards can then be used to guide all other system components. The SBE (standards-based education) reform [2] movement calls for clear, measurable standards for all school students. Rather than norm-referenced rankings, [3] a standards-based system measures each student against the concrete standard. Curriculum, assessments, and professional development are aligned to the standards.

Contents

Outcomes-based education

Standards are an evolution of the earlier OBE (outcomes-based education) [4] which was largely rejected in the United States as unworkable in the 1990s, and is still being implemented by some and abandoned by other governments. In contrast, the more modest "standards" reform has been limited to the core goals of the OBE programs:[ dubious – discuss ]

In the process of establishing standards for each individual curriculum area, such as mathematics and science, many other reforms, such as inquiry-based science may be implemented, but these are not core aspects of the standards program. [5]

The standards movement can be traced to the efforts of Marc Tucker's NCEE [6] which adapted aspects of William Spady's OBE [7] movement into a system based on creating standards and assessments for a Certificate of Initial Mastery. [8] This credential has since been abandoned by every state which first adopted the concept, including Washington and Oregon and largely replaced by graduation examinations. His organization had contracts with states and districts covering as many as half of all American school children by their own claims, and many states enacted education reform legislation in the early 1990s based on this model, which was also known at the time as "performance-based education" as OBE (and the non-OBE progressive reforms co-marketed with it) had been too widely attacked to be saleable under that name. Though the standards movement has a stronger backing from conservatives than OBE by adopting a platform of raising higher academic standards, other conservatives believe that it is merely a re-labeling of a failed, unrealistic vision. It is believed to be the educational equivalent of a planned economy which attempts to require all children to perform at world-class levels merely by raising expectations and imposing punishments and sanctions on schools and children who fall short of the new standards.

Vision

The vision of the standards-based education reform movement [9] is that all teenagers will receive a meaningful high school diploma that serves essentially as a public guarantee that they can read, write, and do basic mathematics (typically through first-year algebra) at a level which might be useful to an employer. To avoid a surprising failure at the end of high school, standards trickle down through all the lower grades, with regular assessments through a variety of means.

No student, by virtue of poverty, age, race, gender, cultural or ethnic background, disabilities, or family situation will ultimately be exempt from learning the required material, although it is acknowledged that individual students may learn in different ways and at different rates.

Standards are chosen through political discussions that focus on what students will need to learn to be competitive in the job market, instead of by textbook publishers or education professors or tradition. Standards are normally published and freely available to parents and taxpayers as well as professional educators and textbook writers.

Standards focus on the goal of a literate and economically competitive workforce. [10]

Components

Some of the common components of standards-based education reform [12] are:

History

Standards-based education reform in the United States began with the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983. [15]

In 1989, an education summit involving all fifty state governors and President George H. W. Bush resulted in the adoption of national education goals for the year 2000; the goals included content standards. [15] That same year, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics published the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, a standards-based document. [15]

A standards based vision was enacted under the Clinton Administration in 1994. A reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was passed to ensure that all states had rigorous standards for all subject areas and grade levels. This vision was then carried forward by the Bush Administration in 2001 with the passing of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). [16] [17]

Standards-based school reform has become a predominant issue facing public schools. By the 1996 National Education Summit, 44 governors and 50 corporate CEOs set the priorities (Achieve, 1998) [18]

By 1998, almost every state had implemented or was in the process of implementing academic standards for their students in math and reading. Principals and teachers have received bonuses or been fired, students have been promoted or retained in their current grade, and legislation has been passed so that high school students will graduate or be denied a diploma based on whether or not they had met the standards, usually as measured by a criterion-referenced test.[ citation needed ]

The standards-based National Education Goals (Goals 2000) were set by the U.S. Congress in the 1990s. Many of these goals were based on the principles of outcomes-based education, and not all of the goals were attained by the year 2000 as was intended. The movement resulted in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, which required that states make yearly progress towards having all students be proficient by 2014, as evidenced by annual standardized testing. In response to growing public disapproval with NCLB as the deadline approached without any state being able to reach this goal, the Obama administration began granting waivers to states exempting them from NCLB testing requirements. The waivers were linked to various reforms, such as the adoption of common standards by a consortium of states, of which the Common Core was the only one. In December 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law devolving many of NCLB's testing requirements to the states.

Critics

Aspects of standards-based education reform came under scrutiny in the 1990s. Some education researchers, such as UCLA's Gary Orfield, disagreed that all students should pass a rigorous test just to get a high school diploma. [19] Others, such as the website Mathematically Correct, questioned the NCTM standards approach to teaching mathematics from 1997 to 2003. [20] Some state standards have been criticized for either not being specific as to academic content, or not implementing curricula which follow the new standards. Advocates of traditional education believe it is not realistic to expect all students to perform at the same level as the best students, nor to punish students simply because they do not perform as well as the most academically talented. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outcome-based education</span> Educational system based on the desired goals

Outcome-based education or outcomes-based education (OBE) is an educational theory that bases each part of an educational system around goals (outcomes). By the end of the educational experience, each student should have achieved the goal. There is no single specified style of teaching or assessment in OBE; instead, classes, opportunities, and assessments should all help students achieve the specified outcomes. The role of the faculty adapts into instructor, trainer, facilitator, and/or mentor based on the outcomes targeted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Standardized test</span> Test administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner.

Educational assessment or educational evaluation is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes, aptitude and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning. Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning. Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community, a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole. The word 'assessment' came into use in an educational context after the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curriculum</span> Educational plan

In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experiences in terms of the educator's or school's instructional goals. A curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Curricula are split into several categories: the explicit, the implicit, the excluded, and the extracurricular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No Child Left Behind Act</span> 2002 United States education reform law; repealed 2015

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals could improve individual outcomes in education. The Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills. To receive federal school funding, states had to give these assessments to all students at select grade levels.

The National Science Education Standards (NSES) represent guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. These provide a set of goals for teachers to set for their students and for administrators to provide professional development. The NSES influence various states' own science learning standards, and statewide standardized testing.

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM) are guidelines produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2000, setting forth recommendations for mathematics educators. They form a national vision for preschool through twelfth grade mathematics education in the US and Canada. It is the primary model for standards-based mathematics.

The New England Common Assessment Program was a series of reading, writing, mathematics and science achievement tests, administered annually, which were developed in response to the Federal No Child Left Behind Act. Starting in 2005, school students in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont participated in NECAP, and Maine joined the assessment program in 2009. It was a collaborative project of the New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont departments of education, with assistance from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessments. Measured Progress, an assessment contractor from Dover, New Hampshire, coordinates production, administration, scoring and reporting.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically according to results on standardized tests. As defined by National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), AYP is "the amount of annual achievement growth to be expected by students in a particular school, district, or state in the U.S. federal accountability system, No Child Left Behind (NCLB)." AYP has been identified as one of the sources of controversy surrounding George W. Bush administration's Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Private schools are not required to make AYP.

The Certificate of Mastery (CIM) was created by report "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages". The CIM has been called an outcome-based education diploma as it would be necessary to either receive or replace the high school diploma, and was characteristic of education reform legislation in many states such as Washington and Oregon.

In an educational setting, standards-based assessment is assessment that relies on the evaluation of student understanding with respect to agreed-upon standards, also known as "outcomes". The standards set the criteria for the successful demonstration of the understanding of a concept or skill.

An exit examination is a test that students must pass to receive a diploma and graduate from school. Such examinations have been used in a variety of countries; this article focuses on their use within the United States. These are usually criterion-referenced tests which were implemented as part of a comprehensive standards-based education reform program which sets into place new standards intended to increase the learning of all students.

The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) is an American not-for-profit education research, advocacy, and educator professional learning organization based in Washington, DC, that first formed in 1988 as the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy.

A curriculum framework is an organized plan or set of standards or learning outcomes that defines the content to be learned in terms of clear, definable standards of what the student should know and be able to do.

Education in Virginia addresses the needs of students from pre-kindergarten through adult education. Virginia's educational system consistently ranks in the top ten states on the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress, with Virginia students outperforming the average in almost all subject areas and grade levels tested. The 2010 Quality Counts report ranked Virginia's K–12 education fourth best in the country. All school divisions must adhere to educational standards set forth by the Virginia Department of Education, which maintains an assessment and accreditation regime known as the Standards of Learning to ensure accountability. In 2008, 81% of high school students graduated on-time after four years. The 1984 Virginia Assembly stated that, "Education is the cornerstone upon which Virginia's future rests."

The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) is a state agency in Rhode Island that oversees the elementary and secondary education system from pre-Kindergarten through high school. It is headquartered in Providence. RIDE works closely with the Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner (RIOPC), the agency charged with overseeing higher education. Together, RIDE and RIOPC aim to provide an aligned, cohesive, and comprehensive education for all students.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as simply Common Core, is an educational initiative from 2010 that details what K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conclusion of each school grade. The initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium featuring two states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Educational Activity, and the Bureau of Indian Education, that work to create and deploy a standard set of K–12 assessments in Mathematics and English, based on the Common Core State Standards.

A high school diploma is a diploma awarded upon graduation of high school. A high school diploma is awarded after completion of courses of studies lasting four years, typically from grade 9 to grade 12. It is the school leaving qualification in the United States and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Every Student Succeeds Act</span> 2015 United States education reform law

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a US law passed in December 2015 that governs the United States K–12 public education policy. The law replaced its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and modified but did not eliminate provisions relating to the periodic standardized tests given to students. Like the No Child Left Behind Act, ESSA is a reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which established the federal government's expanded role in public education.

References

  1. ↑ Glavin, Chris (2014-02-06). "Reforms in the 1980s | K12 Academics". www.k12academics.com. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  2. ↑ Glavin, Chris (2014-02-06). "Standards-based Education Reform | K12 Academics". www.k12academics.com. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  3. ↑ "Norm-Referenced Achievement Tests | FairTest". www.fairtest.org. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  4. ↑ Glavin, Chris (2014-02-06). "What is OBE? | K12 Academics". www.k12academics.com. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  5. ↑ "What is Inquiry-Based Science?". Smithsonian Science Education Center. 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  6. ↑ "NCEE | Marc S. Tucker". ncee.org. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  7. ↑ href=, <a. "'Father of outcomes-based education': Focus on students' skills, not grades | The Varsitarian". varsitarian.net. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  8. ↑ Olson, Lynn (20 April 1994). "Center Presses 'Certificate of Initial Mastery' - Education Week". Education Week. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  9. ↑ "Standards-Based Education Reform". www.rand.org. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  10. ↑ Winthrop, Justin van Fleet and Rebecca (2010-09-29). "To be Globally Competitive, We Must be Globally Competent". Brookings. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  11. ↑ James D. Ellis The Influence of the National Science Education Standards on the Science Curriculum, University of Kansas, National Academy of Sciences
  12. ↑ Scarbrough, Bradley. "PEER Fact Sheet: Standards Based Education Reform". www.cesa7.org. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  13. ↑ "NYS Regents". www.rcdony.org. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  14. ↑ Pathak, Yamini. "Everything You Need to Know about the New York State Regents Exams". Noodle. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
  15. 1 2 3 The Virginia Standards of Learning. cepionline.org
  16. ↑ Lorrie Shepard, Jane Hannaway, Eva Baker (eds.) Standards, Assessments, and Accountability – Education Policy White Paper. National Academy of Education, Washington
  17. ↑ Hamilton, L. S., Stecher, B. M., & Yuan, K. (2008). Standards-Based Reform in the United States: History, Research, and Future Directions . RAND Corporation.
  18. ↑ Standards-Based Reform. Virtual.clemson.edu. Retrieved on 2012-05-18.
  19. ↑ Orfield, Gary; Lee, Jaekyung (2000-06-01). "Tracking Achievement Gaps and Assessing the Impact of NCLB on the Gaps". The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Archived from the original on 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  20. ↑ "Mathematically Correct". TeachMeWell.com. TeachMeWell Inc. 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2018. MathematicallyCorrect.com is a US-based organization that has identified the absolute need for American Students to return to the mathematical fundamentals.
  21. ↑ "Offer Choice, Not Rewards and Punishment". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2018-07-03.

Standards, Assessments and Accountability. National Academy of Education https://web.archive.org/web/20110727105857/http://www.naeducation.org/Standards_Assessments_Accountability_White_Paper.pdf

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